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January 18, 2012

Norovirus Hits #NASH74: A Case Study in Crisis Communication

As many of you have heard, including from the school administration a few of us from Mount Allison went to the 74th Annual Conference of the Canadian University Press. There were many great presentations from journalists and other experts, helpful round-table discussions from those at other papers from around the country, and inspiring, informative, and sometimes hilarious keynote addresses. However, all you heard was probably something like this headline: Painful norovirus infected 75 people at Victoria conference
Thankfully I left unscathed by the virus. however many others didn't. While it must have been a nightmare for organizers, by most accounts they did an excellent job communicating with delegates throughout the ordeal. I find myself in the majority but there are those who claim that the way in which they communicated (e-mail, door-to-door checks, and Twitter) was inadequate. I collected the most relevant posts from throughout the night and asked the interwebs (but primarily the others who were at #NASH74) what they thought. Below is that story.